Meadowhall branch of luxury women’s fashion retailer to close after company goes into administration
The Meadowhall store of L.K. Bennett was one of five stores closed immediately by administrators from the EY restructuring team appointed today.
They also reduced employee numbers at the company’s headquarters, in total resulting in 55 redundancies.
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Hide AdThe brand employs around 500 people at 39 stores and 37 concessions across the UK plus its London head office.
Dan Hurd, joint administrator said: “Amidst tough trading conditions for retailers, the company has been further impacted by significant rent increases and business rate rises.
“Linda and the management team therefore made the difficult decision to place the company into administration, to protect the future of the business.”
“L.K. Bennett is a strong luxury UK brand, the new season collection was critically acclaimed, and recent trading is up, which we hope will be attractive to prospective buyers.”
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Hide AdHeadquartered in London, L.K. Bennett was founded in 1990 by Linda Bennett. The company’s international operations are not included in the administration process.
Administrators say a sale process for the business has commenced during which trading will continue as normal, although web sales will be temporarily suspended.
This is to allow the administrators to work with the company’s trading partners to ensure customer orders can be processed and delivered as usual, they added.
As well as Meadowhall, the other stores to close are Bristol, Liverpool and two in London at Brent Cross and Westbourne Grove.